[sonyisdope]

I could make a survey I guess, but I want to know what everyone uses.

Here are the 5 questions I would like answered:

#1-What brand is your light?
#2-How much did you light cost?
#3-How much nightriding do you do?
#4-How long are your night rides?
#5-Is your light a HID?

I'm just curious to know. I've searched through the threads on lights, but I'm curious as to what people are using now. I've got a 10watt Niterider, and I thought I liked it. . .until I rode with people with HIDs. Man, they make my light look crappy.

Me?
#1-I use a Niterider TrailRat
#2-it was like $150 I think.
#3-I do probably 1 mountain night ride a week, and a 1 road ride a week.
#4-My night rides are about an hour and a half to two hours.
#5-It's not a HID

 

[cratz2]

#1 I have two bikes with lights. My main night/pavement bike has a Trek light Vision 30 light combo which came used on another bike. It's a basic incandescent that runs on 2 C cells, but I replaced the front bulb with something called the PR-SMJLED which is a very effecient LED conversion. I've never really done a side by side comparison, but it's just about as bright as the incandescent if not slightly brighter. Not sure how long it runs on 2 C cells, but on 2 D cells, it runs for about 180 hours to 50% brightness.

#2 The lights came on another bike (which I sold for about $80 profit) and the SMJLED cost $10 so I guess negative $70.

#3 Quite a bit... My normal circuit is 12.6 miles, plus or minus which extra turns I take. I try to ride this every night it isn't pouring down rain.

#4 12.6 Miles

#5 I'm a flashlight junkie (flashaholics, we call ourselves) and I've had two HID lights, but none for the bike. In the flashlight world, the big advantage to the HID lights is how far they throw. Since the arc is so small, with the proper reflector, you can really reach out there way WAY WAY off. The Maxabeam (used in many movies such as Jurassic Park and Alien vs Predator) can reach unbelievable distances.

Not to take away from the HID lights on the market, but I think a bikelight using one or three quality Luxeon III LEDs would be my ideal bike light. Much more power effecient than HID and they should last forever, sould DEFINATELY be lighter weight and there's no warm up time as with HID.

 

[Psycho Mike]

#1: I have a Planet Bike Alias SC (8, 12, 15 W and flash) and a little LED marker
#2: $165 Cdn at Mountain Equipment Co-op
#3: It varies with the time of year. My commute to work puts me in darkness for a chunk of the fall, winter and spring. I also do some night rides in the summer.
#4: Length of time varies from 2 x 25 min runs (commuting) to 2.5 hrs
#5: Non-HID light.

 

[Eric Hoefer]

#1-What brand is your light?
I home made my light

#2-How much did you light cost?
around $25 to make the light and $8 for the battery

#3-How much nightriding do you do?
Go out during snowstorms in the winter

#4-How long are your night rides?
about an hour

#5-Is your light a HID?
Nope

I bought a garden lighting light fixture (just the bulb and reflector) changed the bulb out for a higher wattage one. I housed the bulb in a rubber pipe connector and used those metal loops (the adjusable ones that can get tighter or looser with a screwdriver that you use in plumbing alot) to attach it to the handlebars and mounted the battery, an airsoft rifle batter which I purchased off of Ebay for dirt cheap, to a reflector mount using zipties. I bought a cheap switch from radioshack and wired it all together using Remote Control Car wire. Its pretty bright and lasts about 1.5hrs I also have a small RC car battery as a spare that lasts about an hour. If I could find my digicam cable I would take pics of it but untill then it will have to wait.

 

[gunfodder]

1. NiteRider FireStorm - comes with both helmet and handlebar mounts. I have used the handlebar mount mostly since it is easier to deal with and the battery is not light.

2. A lot, even with significant discounts.

3. During the summer? None

4. My longest ride with this light was 2 hours at a 24 hour race. The battery is supposed to last 4 hours.

5. Yes, it is. I wouldn't go back to another light after seeing how much brighter my HID light was than any two halogens my competitors were using. It only takes a few seconds to warm up and since the battery lasts four hours you don't really need to keep turning it off and on.

 

[ArmySlowRdr]

i have a rat and a performance headmounted job.
100 and 150 maybe rspectively
maybe once a year or twice
usu as part of a 24 hr ordeal
not hid
sometimes I rent jetlites outta cali, truckee which r way mo better.

 

[LyNx]

Here are the 5 questions I would like answered:

#1-What brand is your light? CYGO 12W Dual Beam

#2-How much did you light cost? $80 US

#3-How much nightriding do you do? Ride about twice a week, sometimes 3 times.

#4-How long are your night rides? 2-3 hours long

#5-Is your light a HID? NOPE unfortunately Halogen I would like to get a Cateye Tripple Shot LED soon though.

 

[brado1]

I could make a survey I guess, but I want to know what everyone uses.

Here are the 5 questions I would like answered:

#1-What brand is your light?
#2-How much did you light cost?
#3-How much nightriding do you do?
#4-How long are your night rides?
#5-Is your light a HID?

Mine

#1-What brand is your light? JetLite Phantom i13 20Wbulb

#2-How much did you light cost? $300 ( now around $260ish )

#3-How much nightriding do you do? Summer: maybe 2 night rides a month
Winter : 2 nights a week

#4-How long are your night rides? 2-4 hours long

#5-Is your light a HID? No

 

[il2mb]

The best.

#1-What brand is your light?
- Lupine Edison 5 on the handle bar
- Light and Motion ultra on the helmet with the smaller Li Ion battery (used for fast technical downhill only)

#2-How much did your light cost?
- Lupine runs about $800
- Ultra around $600

#3-How much nightriding do you do?
- In the fall and winter I'll predominately ride at night; at least 3 times a week.

#4-How long are your night rides?
- 2 - 4 hrs

#5-Is your light a HID?
- Yes, both of them. Combined I throw nearly 1500 lumens of beautiful bright light down the trail.

The Lupine makes a big, wide, bright beam; while the Ultra throws more of a spotlight further down the trail. The combination is awsome. I can ride at night without any restraint. Of course the folks coming the other direction see spots in their vision for several minutes after I pass.

 

[Guest]

#1-What brand is your light? i have helmet mounted nightrider trail rat and a dual beam nightrider classic.

#2-How much did you light cost? i got the trail rat used for seventy dollars and paid one hundred and thirty dollars for the classic, which was a replacement from nightrider for my dead digital pro something or the other, which they refused to repair at the time.

#3-How much nightriding do you do? not much any more besides commuting day in and day out, but me and my buddies used to hit it hard after dark at least twice a week.

#4-How long are your night rides? one to five hours when our posse was in its prime.

#5-Is your light a HID? no.

 

[borregokid]

Make it simple for you

This I think is the story of a lot of people. They buy a 10w Halogen but its not enough. Then they buy another 10w Halogen for the handlebar or helmet and its still not enough. Now they have $200 of inadequate lighting so they buy an HID and the !0w Halogens functions mostly as back ups. You can save yourself $100 and buy a hemet mounted HID and put a 10W halogen on the handlebar.

 

[macming]

#1 - NiteRider Enduro
#2 - $270 US
#3- Not a whole lot because I don't even have my mountain bike with me. Bought the light for the 24 hour race this year though. I mostly road ride due to lack of trails where I work.
#4 - Hopefully a couple hours for this year's race, but the battery lasts 4 hours
#5 - Yes, it's a HID. Much brighter than my friend's dual halogen.